dimanche 27 juillet 2014

In any culture, you can tell the importance of an event in
its history by the number of ways it is told. By that standard, Jesus’ feeding
of the multitude is one of the most important events in the Gospels. Not only
does it appear in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, but Matthew and Mark both have
two different accounts, one in which 5,000 are fed and, in the other, 4,000.

Such a miracle would have been most welcome in the France of
1846, as the famine that began the previous year was only getting worse. Our
Lady of La Salette did promise that “rocks and stones will be turned into heaps
of wheat;” but that is very different, more reminiscent of today’s reading from
Isaiah. Before reaching that turning point in her discourse, she had said, “If
you have wheat, you must not sow it,” insisting no harvest would come of it.

For farmers, famine means they have failed. The
cause—drought, flood, insects—doesn’t matter. Not only have they not produced
enough to sell, but they cannot even provide for their families, and find
themselves often deep in debt. I am reminded of what the mother of a farming
family in Iowa told me, “In this State, the only legalized form of gambling is
farming.”

The Beautiful Lady saw her people pinning their hopes
(gambling) on their own efforts. Worse, when their efforts failed, they blamed
God; Mary says, “You swore, and threw in my Son’s name.”

The very fact that Mary came to La Salette shows her deep
concern for her people’s plight. She addressed its underlying cause, their lack
of living faith, and their failure to practice even what weak faith they had.

St. Paul reminds us today that nothing “will be able to
separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” He expresses his
own strong faith, assuring others they have nothing to fear ultimately from any
danger or threat, including famine.

Mary addressed people of weak faith, encouraging them to
nourish it, and in her own way feeding them by showing them how they were to be
fed.

If anyone calls you “a Solomon,” it’s a high compliment. The
wisdom of Solomon is, after all, legendary, and when the Queen of Sheba came
“to test him with subtle questions,… there remained nothing hidden from him
that he could not explain to her” (1 Kings 10). He was a genuine “universal
man.”

And yet, how different from the persons in the Gospel
parables who find buried treasure or fine pearls, or separate good fish from
bad. Their “wisdom” is a symbol of the Kingdom of God.

The wisdom of the characters in the parables lies in their
single-mindedness . They are focused on one thing. It’s like when Jesus says,
“Seek first the Kingdom of God.“ (Matthew 6:33)

One might think of Mary at La Salette as one who provides a
map to the treasure, except in this case the treasure isn’t buried at all. It
is, as the saying goes, hidden in plain sight.

Spiritual writers today often comment on how hard it is to
live such busy lives and at the same time grow in our faith. Even without the
various distractions created by forms of entertainment, so many demands are
placed on most people that there’s no time for God. We forget the value of the
Lord’s Day, the weekly “time out” that is intended to remind us that we are
more than our work.

“Be still and know that I am God,” we read in Psalm 46.
There are two elements: 1) Stop what you are doing, and 2) Get to know me.
Sunday worship and Sunday rest respond to both.

Today’s Responsorial Psalm expresses delight in knowing
God’s command, precepts and decrees.
Contrary to modern thinking, these are seen as signs of his compassion,
for they manifest his will and bestow wisdom on those who love them.

When Bishop Libasci of Manchester visited La Salette of
Enfield, NH on June 29, 2014, he drew the connection between God’s rest on the
seventh day and Mary’s reminder of the Lord’s Day and the saying of Jesus,
“Come to me, all you who labor… and I will give you rest.”

When I was a student in Rome, I often took a bus that passed
in front of a government building, Ministero di Grazia e Giustizia, the
Ministry of Mercy and Justice. It has since become only the Ministry of
Justice. Too bad.

“Your mastery over all things makes you lenient to all,”
says the author of the Book of Wisdom in his lengthy meditation on God’s saving
deeds.

At La Salette, Mary exercised that same double ministry,
which belong together.

As Minister of Justice, she does not hold back from accusing
her people of the wrong they are doing and the good they are failing to do. She
drives her point home by using strong language: “If my people refuse to
submit...However much you do, however much you pray, you will never be able
recompense the pains I have taken for you.”

But she appears primarily in the role of Minister of Mercy.
Tears and promises and the crucifix on her breast make that obvious.

“When he celebrates the sacrament of Penance, the priest is
fulfilling the ministry of the Good Shepherd who seeks the lost sheep, of the
Good Samaritan who binds up wounds, of the Father who awaits the prodigal son
and welcomes him on his return, and of the just and impartial judge whose
judgment is both just and merciful.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.
1465)

La Salette Missionaries who have worked at La Salette in
France and at other Shrines throughout the world have ample opportunity to
recognize the truth of that statement.

The Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds is a striking
illustration of this same reality. With Jesus there is no rush to judgment. All
in due time.

One does not have to be a Missionary of Our Lady of La
Salette or a La Salette Associate to carry out the twin ministries of Mercy and
Justice. There are many ways of attracting people to give up sin and follow
Jesus more closely, by our life-style (think of Pope Francis), by our attitude,
by the peace flowing from us as we follow the Lord.

lundi 7 juillet 2014

France, 1846. Very little rain in the spring and summer caused
grave damage to the wheat crop. Meanwhile, the potatoes had already been ruined
in the previous year, and were no better this year. Speaking of which, Our Lady
of La Salette made ​​a statement in language that to 21st century ears
is nothing short of scandalous. "If the harvest is ruined," she said,
"it's only because of you." In
other words, it's your own fault.

Many people in the world suffer from natural disasters and
famine. Reasonably can we say “it's your own fault?” Scientists tell us that
global warming, with its consequences, is actually our fault. Whether we believe it or not. That's not what Mary meant. The prophets
often made ​​the connection between sin and drought, for example; between
repentance and an abundant harvest. The Beautiful Lady uses exactly that kind
of language, but even this does not answer the objection, since the New
Testament lacks such images. What about the prophecies of the end of time about
"wars and rumors of wars", earthquakes, etc… Which we find in the Gospels? Again, nothing
in Mary's message suggests that this was her perspective. That there is a
connection between sin and suffering is clear in the story of Adam and Eve.
"I will multiply your pains of pregnancy ... cursed be the land for your
fault ... In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." (Genesis
3:16-19) These are the consequences of original sin. The "human condition" was not God's
original intention. Saint Paul brings to our attention a day when this
connection came to an end. "The creation was made subject to futility, not
willingly but because of Him who subjected it, in hopes that the creation
itself would be liberated from its bondage to corruption and able to participate
in the glorious freedom of the children of God.” Mary's goal at La Salette is like the sower in
the Gospel today, sowing seeds of repentance and hope, watering the soil of our
hearts with tears, waiting for most abundant fruit.

Mélanie Calvat and Maximin Giraud would certainly fit the description
of “little ones” as stated by Jesus,
i.e. the opposite of “the wise and the learned;” even though there was a school
in their home town of Corps, they were uneducated.

Fr. Joseph Ross, M.S., believes that if Our Lady had appeared to a
priest, her story would never have been told, because the priest himself would
not have believed what he had seen and heard. One might doubt the accuracy of
that statement, but the fact remains that “wisdom and learning” can get in the
way. It appears that “meekness, which appears in the first reading and in the
Gospel, is a prerequisite.

The word “meek” conjures up a certain image. Mélanie, for example, was
by all reports small for her age—just under 15—and quite withdrawn. Maximin, on
the other hand, who had turned 11 a few weeks before the Apparition, was lively
and forward to the point of rudeness.

Neither one was meek in the conventional sense. But they were deprived
and dependent, and in that sense “obligatorily” or “socially” meek,” of no
particular importance to the world in which they lived.

There is no record that either of the children ever boasted, in later
life, of having seen the Blessed Virgin. In September 1861 Maximin, now 26, was
at La Salette and once again told the story of what he had seen and heard there
as a boy. At the end, when he described the Beautiful Lady’s disappearance, he
commented: “She left me here, with all my faults.”

Maximin and Mélanie lived good but unsettled lives. No one has ever
accused them of any wrongdoing in their personal behavior, but neither did they
rise to any level of greatness, though Mélanie did have a certain following. In
a real sense they remained “little ones” to their death, he in 1875 at the age
of 39, she in 1904 at 63.

They are models to us. We too, with all our faults, can be faithful, in
genuine meekness, to the task that God has assigned us. Little ones we may be,
but empowered by God just the same.